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Charge categories and exclusions

Block fees paid for certificates or charges fall within one of the following three case categories:

Summary I: Includes all provincial and federal non-Criminal Code of Canada offences and all summary conviction and Crown-option offences where the Crown proceeds summarily and the maximum sentence is six months.

Summary II: Includes all Crown-option offences where the Crown proceeds summarily and the maximum penalty is greater than six months.

Indictable: Includes several indictable offences and Crown-option offences where the Crown proceeds by way of indictment.

Block fee exclusions

New categories of charges or proceedings are automatically excluded from block fees. Excluded matters will be paid according to the hourly tariff. The list of block fee exclusions includes a wide range of complex proceedings and indictable offences. For example, LAO automatically excludes:

all Big Case Management cases

homicide

attempted murder

manslaughter

serious sexual assaults

serious conspiracy offences

offences against children

appeals

Youth Criminal Justice Act matters

Ontario Review Board hearings

dangerous offender proceedings

all trials and matters set for trial (which will be paid under the hourly tariff)

extradition proceedings, which should be billed hourly according to the regular tariff; lawyers with an extradition certificate that does not authorize block fee excluded criminal charges should contact the district office or the Lawyer Services & Payments department for permission to bill their account hourly according to the regular tariff.

The most serious charge on a certificate determines whether the matter will be paid by the hourly tariff or block fees. All charges and proceedings on “excluded” certificates will be paid under the hourly tariff, even if the certificate includes block fee-eligible charges.

Any block fee-eligible certificate that is not resolved will be paid by the hourly tariff.

the Crown has agreed in writing beforehand to the withdrawal or stay of all the authorized criminal charges.

This new rule applies only to court attendance by an articling student, and is limited to withdrawals and stays of all criminal charges. It does not apply to guilty pleas or sentencing hearings.

When billing for this online, please:

allocate the block resolution to the panel lawyer who did the work to negotiate the withdrawal/stay with the Crown and is instructing the student to attend on the withdrawal/stay. This may be the acknowledging lawyer or an agent of the acknowledging lawyer who belongs to the LAO panel

attach the written confirmation of the withdrawal from the Crown

record the name of the articling student and the articling student’s court attendance on your docket.

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Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), an independent but publicly funded and publicly accountable non-profit corporation. None of this material may be commercially reproduced, but copying for other purposes, with credit, is encouraged.